


we'll never get where we're going

by BladedDarkness



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Slow Burn, alternate universe - alternate meeting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-10 02:11:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6933853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BladedDarkness/pseuds/BladedDarkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of being recruited by the DEO, Alex started an internship with Lord Technologies while still in college.</p>
<p>General Danvers Week 1, Day 1: Alternate Meeting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'll never get where we're going

This human concerns her.

 

Not because she could ever hope to overpower Astra physically. But her mind is most impressive for a human.

 

Astra has kept track of humans that have potential to interfere with her mission for Earth. And this one, this Alexandra Danvers, is creeping closer every day to potentially finding their weaknesses.

 

Alexandra Danvers is studying Kryptonian DNA. It worries Astra because she seems to have an endless supply, no matter how many times Astra’s men break into Lord Technologies and generally disrupt his laboratories.

 

She detests Maxwell Lord on principle. The man reminds her too much of the science council that had done nothing and let Krypton burn, condescending in their supposed intellect and plan for the future.

 

But Alexandra Danvers is the problem, not Maxwell Lord. Lord is no more than one of those bloodsucking insects the humans swat contemptuously.

 

If destroying her work during break ins isn’t going to stop the woman, then it’s time for a more personal touch.

 

\-----

 

Alex rubs her eyes tiredly as she finishes her security procedures and exits Lord Tech. Max has been poking around her laboratory again, but she isn’t entirely sure for what.

 

When he’d first approached her, just shy of her final year to her degree, she’d been hesitant. Maxwell Lord had rubbed her the wrong way, and truthfully still does. His presence seems to stick in the room like oil that she can’t wash from her hands. She just hopes he doesn’t give her a rash eventually.

 

Still, his initial offer had been just generous enough to not be insulting. And with her roommate Lucy’s careful eye and negotiation, her contract with the man had ended up better than Alex had ever expected. 

 

She was to consult on a certain number of his projects every year, and in return, he would allow her use of the resources available to his facility. Any discoveries she made while using his laboratories would belong solely to her, something that vexed the man.

 

He was the only person with the technology she needed that would allow her to retain control over her projects, and that was much better than the alternative.

 

Because the alternative was working for the government, and that was something she swore she would never do when she was fifteen years old and suddenly fatherless.

 

It was one of two things her and Max have in common.

 

She is just reaching for her car door when something slams into her and the ground is instantly a few dozen feet below.

 

\-----

 

How odd, Astra thinks, that the human does not scream at suddenly being airborne. She threw the woman over her shoulder, holding onto her thighs and lower back, just for that reaction.

 

It is both disappointing and impressive.

 

Astra quickly drops Alexandra Danvers onto a rooftop several miles from Lord Technologies. The woman stumbles, and immediately presses a button on her watch. Astra winces at the high pitch and rips the device from her wrist, crushing it in her fist.

 

“I hope that was not an attempt to incapacitate me. It was little more than a nuisance,” Astra rumbles, dropping the crumpled watch to the rooftop. The ringing in her ears quickly fades and it takes but another second to recalibrate her selective hearing to just their immediate area.

 

The human blinks at her, pupils dilating in the darkness. This high up, little of the artificial light from the other buildings penetrates the gloom. “You’re Kryptonian,” she says, with the slightest detectable hint of surprise. Her eyes flick over Astra’s form, lingering on the crest on her uniform.

 

“Alexandra Danvers.” Astra takes an imposing step forward, nodding slightly when she doesn’t retreat. It would do little good anyways. “I am General Astra In-Ze.”

 

“Pleasure,” she says dryly, rolling her reddened wrist. “And it’s Alex.”

 

“I have a few questions for you, Alex Danvers.”

 

“Hit me.”

 

Astra jerks back slightly, frowning. “I do not wish to  _ kill _ you, Alex Danvers.”

 

Alex rubs her face. “It’s a - never mind. What do you want? And it’s just Alex.”

 

“You are sequencing Kryptonian DNA. For what purpose?”

 

“Curiosity,” Alex drawls. “Why else?”

 

Astra studies the woman for a moment. “I do not believe you.”

 

Alex crosses her arms. “Look, what am I going to do with it, anyways? I only know of two - well, now three - Kryptonians. Whatever I’m working on is going to have a limited scope. Unless - where did you come from? Are there more of you hiding on our planet?”

 

Astra scowls. Something about Alex’s tone when she said ‘our planet’ was disconcerting. “You’re xenophobic.”

 

Astra is disappointed.

 

Alex snorts. “I don’t trust aliens. I don’t trust the government. I don’t trust  _ people _ .” She shrugs. “All three have more than their fair share of assholes. Get used to it.”

 

“You plan to weaponize your research.”

 

“Let’s just say it’s in preparation for possible eventualities.” Astra nods, but there’s still something more to what Alex is doing, she suspects.

 

“I’ve impaired your progress several times now,” Astra reveals.  Alex’s face shifts, and the anger there pleases her. “How do you keep obtaining Kryptonian DNA?”

 

“That’s none of your concern,” Alex retorts, her posture stiff.

 

“You don’t have access to the Superman, much less continuously,” ponders Astra, tapping her own arm in thought. She can’t imagine Kal-El giving his permission for such work anyways. Unless… “You said you know of three Kryptonians,” realizes Astra suddenly. “Who is the third?”

 

Alex bristles even further, but stays silent. Astra feels a trickle of rage creep up her spine, the hot spike of anger in her eyes. “Where are you holding them?” 

 

She had expected to reason with Alex. But if the humans are holding a Kryptonian and Alex not only has knowledge but unlimited access to them… Her vision is tinted red as she repeats, “Where are they?”

 

“Right here.” A blur shoots up the side of the building and flips through the air, landing roughly on one knee between Astra and Alex. “I need to work on that,” the woman mutters as she straightens up, glancing over Alex quickly before turning to Astra. Her stance falters. “A-Aunt Astra?”

 

It can’t be. But there’s those eyes and above one of them, that scar. “Kara,” Astra breathes, scarcely believing. And then her arms are full of her niece. How long has it been since Astra has felt a hug like this?

 

“I thought you were dead,” Kara sniffles, and Astra holds her just a little bit tighter, unable to speak.

 

Alex clears her throat behind Kara and Astra shoots her a murderous look, but Kara pulls back.

 

“Alex, this is my aunt, Astra In-Ze,” Kara introduces with a smile, as if the two hadn’t spent ten minutes on the rooftop together before Kara arrived.

 

“Great, now there is another one that is related to you,” scoffs Alex. “She kidnapped me, Kara,” she adds, and Astra remembers again why they are here.

 

Fury so intense that Astra has only felt it once before slams into her gut, coiling and flickering violently. Before the other two can react, she slams Alex into the roof, hand around her throat. “You’ve been experimenting on Kara.”

 

Alex makes a choking noise, but Kara tugs on Astra’s arm pleadingly. “Astra, no, it’s not like that,” Kara says, but all Astra can see, can  _ remember _ , is storming into Zor-El’s lab at Alura’s side and a tiny, helpless Kara floating unresponsive in that tank, wires attached and IVs dripping some strange concoction into her bloodstream. “Alex isn’t like my father,” adds Kara.

 

Astra looks at her, eyebrows raised. “You weren’t supposed to remember,” she mumbles. Her fists ache with the phantom memory of Zor-El’s flesh as she beat him in a rage.

 

“Sol has given me many things,” Kara simply says, and Astra can’t deny that her own memory has grown stronger under the yellow sun, but to overpower forgotten memories? That is something she has never experienced. Astra has never needed her memories erased like Kara, though.

 

Astra has pieced together why Zor-El had done what he did during her long years in Fort Rozz, but that does not mean she forgives him for subjecting Kara to his experiments. Kal-El is proof enough that Kara would have been fine without whatever enhancements he had introduced into her being. It still rankles her that Zor-El had known long before the rest of them had figured it out, and Astra has never accepted Alura’s forgiveness of Zor-El, because she knows she could not ever forgive him herself.

 

“You going to let me up now, General Ass-Pain-For-Me?”

 

“Alex!” Kara barks, and Astra is delighted to see that the human looks embarrassed, if only for a second. “Be nice.” She pulls on Astra again and this time she lets her grip loosen slightly. “Aunt Astra, she’s doing this for me. Not for the government, or Lord, herself, or even other Kryptonians.”

 

Astra waits a moment longer before pulling away. “I do not like you,” she says as Alex sits up, glaring.

 

“S’mutual,” Alex mutters. She points at Kara. “You’re wrong. I’m definitely sequencing Kryptonian DNA for my own purposes.”

 

Kara rolls her eyes, but Astra still can’t help the spike of alarm (and curiosity) that nestles in her chest from this human that fears no Kryptonian or government alike, and she wonders what led her niece into the company of this caustic woman.

 

She hopes that she will be around long enough to find out. She certainly intends to keep an eye on them both now.

**Author's Note:**

> I do Prompt Fridays on Tumblr. This is one of them. I saved it for General Danvers Week 1.
> 
> It's quite likely that I will continue this at some point. In fact, it's probably more a matter of "when" than "if." I don't want to have too many incomplete Supergirl fics on my hands at once.


End file.
